A big showdown on Wednesday before the Polk County Conservation Board could determine the future of the Blank Park Zoo as one of Des Moines’ and Iowa’s top cultural attractions. Without the room to expand properly, the zoo could either continue to exist as it is or move from the South Side, where it’s viewed as a centerpiece in sorely needed revitalization efforts along the busy Southwest Ninth and Southeast 14th Street corridors.

As currently configured, it’s not a bad zoo. But it’s not a great one, either. There’s no “wow” at the Blank Park Zoo, and a zoo in a capital city should offer that.

The 112-acre Fort Des Moines Park, now county-owned but like the zoo, originally part of a tract of land used for the Fort Des Moines Army post, couldn’t be better suited as a site for expansion. With a pristine lake and already well populated with trees, it’s a natural setting that could make the facility more of a sanctuary than a zoo and eliminate some of the need for concrete cages – a laudable goal that has been all but ignored in the debate.

Conservationists and neighbors are adamant that the park’s natural qualities be preserved and rightly so. Zoo expansion, done correctly, doesn’t compromise the environmental integrity of the park area but can, in fact, enhance it because so many more people would be attracted to it. For all practical purposes, the vast Fort Des Moines Park is a neighborhood park used by only a few, and at 112 acres, that’s a luxury few neighborhoods enjoy.

In the past, the Conservation Board hasn’t appeared to be particularly interested in compromising with zoo officials, which makes input from business leaders who support zoo expansion critical to the project’s success. Whether the expansion plan moves forward on the South Side will be decided at the two Conservation Board meetings (Jan. 10 and Feb. 14, both starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Polk County Administration Building, 111 Court Ave.).

The Conservation Board’s decision shouldn’t be based only on input only from the well-networked conservationist and environmental lobby. The time to speak up is now.